ABOUT CLARK STREET BRIDGE

LOIS SORKIN, GRAMMARIAN
THE IDEA
An advertising agency is the factory on the edge of town busy making ideas by the boxful. We thought it would be a good idea to build a bridge to the rest of town.
We call it Clark Street Bridge.
Clark Street Bridge is both homage to Carl Sandburg’s poem of the same name and a metaphor, descriptive of the two-way traffic between advertising and the city of Chicago.
Our goal is to enrich the creative abilities of business leaders and connect with a younger audience, instilling in them a love of literature and music.
THE EXPERIENCE
Clark Street Bridge delivers inspiration in a way that almost everyone finds inspiring.
There are no lectures. There is no professor. There is nothing that would remind you of a classroom.
There is a performance. There is a band. There are dramatic visuals.
Instead of a lecture, there is spoken-word storytelling.
Those who attend, write part of the presentation.
Clark Street Bridge carries inspiration from the agency to the city and it comes back, over the bridge, in unexpected ways—reputation, some recruits, but most of all, respect.

FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) is filled with a diverse and passionate group of thinkers, creators, technologists and storytellers devoted to creating buzzworthy ideas that change consumer behavior. The global, fully integrated marketing communications agency celebrates local culture, flavor and expertise market-by-market. With over 140 years of communications expertise, FCB’s worldwide network spans 150 offices in 90 countries, with more than 8,000 people, and is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG).